he microticket leasing business is fast-paced, with a lot of hustle and bustle from the signing, renting and moving of credit card processing equipment. ISOs and agents want their deals with merchants to close quickly, and they want their leasing partner to be there for them when needed.

Privately held GlobalTech Leasing, Inc. provides leasing services to independent sales organizations, their agents and processors, but it also offers customers an extra level of service. The company's mission statement, posted on the forefront of its Web site, reads:

To maintain superior vendor relationships, first by acknowledging our vendors' value, then by catering to their leasing needs to the very best of our ability.

"There's a big difference between a $350 million lease that takes you all year to get done and a $1,500 lease where these guys are dependent on getting it done very quickly in that day," said Charles Salyer, President and CEO of GlobalTech Leasing.

The Oxnard, Calif.-based company began in 1996 under the name Lease Technologies. Jonathan Severn started it as an in-house leasing company for his credit card business. He decided to incorporate the company in 2000 but had to change the name to Tech Leasing because the name "Lease Technologies" already was being used.

When leasing veteran Charles Salyer joined the company in 2001 to help turn it into a stand-alone leasing company, Tech Leasing became GlobalTech Leasing.

Salyer has nearly 28 years' experience in equipment leasing with a forte in developing and managing customer service-based finance organizations for manufacturers. Before coming to GlobalTech Leasing, Salyer served first as COO and later as President of Global Finance & Leasing, Inc., a credit card equipment leasing company based in Michigan that was sold to CIT in 2001. Salyer served as Vice President, Sales and Strategic Initiatives at CIT.

GlobalTech Leasing has partnerships with a handful of processors, but mostly the company works with independent sales offices and their agents. Here's how they work together: When an MLS gets a merchant credit application from his or her processor, the MLS fills it out and either e-mails it or faxes it to both GlobalTech Leasing and the processor. GlobalTech then scores the merchant's credit.

If the merchant receives a good credit score, and GlobalTech decides to work with that particular business, the company then gives an MLS the OK to move forward with the leasing application. Salyer said there's no better time to do this than when an agent sits down with a merchant to fill out the processing application.

"The sharp ones, and that's the majority of them, will explain to the merchant that they also will need equipment," Salyer said. "And in order for them to get the equipment [the MLS will explain that] they offer a leasing program through GlobalTech Leasing and will suggest to the merchant that they also fill out the lease application."

Salyer believes customer service differentiates GlobalTech Leasing from other leasing companies. "Although we have the technology backing us, we do everything fairly personally," he said. "We have a number of people trained to deal with customer service so they make both the ISO agent comfortable as well as the customer."

GlobalTech Leasing takes customer service calls from both sales agents and merchants. Salyer said typical questions from sales reps are "What do you think about this merchant?" or "What kind of credit did they get?" When merchants call the customer service line, it's often just a matter of helping them better understand the process, such as explaining what happens after they sign the lease agreement.

Small entrepreneurial-type businesses tend to use GlobalTech Leasing's leasing services, and with this type of business, Salyer said, "You're not often dealing with a corporation with financial statements. You're dealing with a 'Joe's Liquor Store' - where Joe has put his sweat equity into the business over the years, and really Joe is the business."

Another personal touch GlobalTech Leasing adds to its program is the process of scoring merchant credit by hand, which also allows the company to respond quickly to MLS inquiries. Salyer said the company has a department that is focused solely on credit scoring.

"Some leasing companies deal strictly with software-based credit scoring," he said. "Information is dumped into the software, the software does the scoring, and then the system produces an answer. What we've found is that by having a human being look at it, our grades tend to be a little bit higher; we can find small issues before they become big issues."

GlobalTech Leasing uses a standardized scoring system that was created for the industry 10 years ago.

The company can process leasing deals between agents and merchants fairly quickly, often within 24 hours or less, sometimes within minutes, but it's the circumstances of the transaction that ultimately determine the outcome.

"It all depends on whether or not there are any idiosyncrasies with the merchant, such as 'Have they had problems in the past?' or 'Is there any particularly large credit amount that they are going to process?' " Salyer said. "We had a jewelry store in business for 35 years and they had some very strong financial statements, but they tend to process some fairly large chunks of money every once in awhile. That would make any processor nervous."

Like most businesses, GlobalTech Leasing is looking to grow. In 2003, the company moved from a smaller suite in a high rise to take up an entire floor of the same building.

"We don't want to get so big that we lose our edge as far as being customer service oriented and providing the personal touch that we add," Salyer said. "But at the same time, we do plan on growing and doubling in size in the next year and a half."

This statement by Salyer may allude to the fact that iNetEvents, Inc., a provider of technology services to the event-management industry, entered into a binding letter of intent to purchase 100% of GlobalTech Leasing, Inc. in the early part of 2003. iNetEvents, Inc. also is looking to acquire International Card Establishment, Inc., another Oxnard, Calif.-based payment company. ICE provides card services to ISOs and merchants. iNetEvents plans to change its name to International Card Establishment, Inc.

Under terms of the acquisition, GlobalTech Leasing would operate as a wholly owned subsidiary and a separate entity of International Card Establishment, keeping the name GlobalTech Leasing. Salyer would continue to serve as its President and also would be a member of the parent company's Board of Directors. At the time this article went to publication, the acquisition of GlobalTech Leasing was close to completion.

"This is probably the most fun I've ever had in the leasing business," Salyer said. "I get to deal more often with the folks that are out there doing the leasing; I get to help them close more deals, whereas with some of the transactions in the past, I was at a fairly high level."

Salyer described GlobalTech Leasing as a group of people dedicated to integrity and customer service.

"When you call us you are going to get a human being," he said. "That's one of the things we pride ourselves on. It's in our advertising, it's in our motto, and it's the heart of our system. Somebody's going to talk to you and explain to you what's going on. You may not always be happy with the answer, but we're not going to throw you into an endless voicemail system."